US foreign policy built on shamelessness, hypocrisy, says columnist

HONG KONG -- As the United States lectures other countries on human rights and press freedom, its military has been busy killing foreign civilians and its prosecutors are going after journalists, whistle-blowers and ethnic Chinese researchers, said an opinion article published in the South China Morning Post Monday.

"While US Secretary of State Antony Blinken flies around the world criticizing other countries' violations of human rights, his government has been busy persecuting journalists and whistle-blowers for exposing atrocities committed by the American military," columnist Alex Lo said in the article.

The US Justice Department has been scapegoating ethnic Chinese scientists and engineers and Chinese students for industrial espionage and intellectual property theft, Lo said.

"The department's 'China Initiative' has more than a whiff of 1950s McCarthyism, except this time, it is not just anti-Communist but also racially driven," Lo added.

After failing to charge those targeted with spying and intellectual property theft, investigators tried to save face "by going after some with wire fraud and/or making false statements," Lo said.